By extending relocation timetable, CHA gets real

That realization appears to be at the base of the Chicago Housing Authority's (CHA) recent announcement that its timetable to build and rehabilitate up to 25,000 units of housing in five years will stretch longer  more likely seven to 10 years.

It's hard to be patient. Overhauling the CHA is of paramount importance to the housing authority's residents and the entire community. Yet by extending its plans upfront, the CHA openly recognizes the massive challenge it faces and the need for better planning and execution.

Even in the best economic and political times, the agency would have been hard-pressed to achieve within five years the lofty goals laid out in its $1.5-billion relocation plan. The revitalization endeavor, which was approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, calls for about 17,000 public housing units to be demolished. That number includes the Cabrini-Green, Robert Taylor Homes, Stateway Gardens and Rockwell Gardens complexes.

In light of the area's worsening affordable-housing crunch, the CHA's relocation of thousands of current residents, who include families and seniors, from the condemned sites into proper housing will prove to be an almost unprecedented logistical challenge.

The extension will push back selection of real estate development proposals to build new CHA low-rise housing. It also will delay the agency's plans to underwrite its rehabilitation efforts by tapping the bond markets.

Both efforts can wait awhile.

Indeed, if the CHA can map out an effective, and realistic, way to get this massive relocation project effectively under way, that will be time well spent.